GB1232243A - - Google Patents

Abstract

1,232,243. Convertible aircraft. CANADAIR Ltd. 15 July, 1968 [2 Aug., 1967], No. 33679/68. Headings B7G and B7W. In a convertible aircraft having conventional power plant, control surfaces and a tail rotor mounted on a vertical axis all controlled by conventional pilot-actuated control members, apparatus is incorporated in the control system to ensure that movement by the pilot of a given control member will automatically result in the operation of power plant, control surfaces or tail rotor elements appropriate to the selected flight attitude of the aircraft. The aircraft, Fig. 1, has a main wing 11 with propeller engines 19 the wing being pivotable about a transverse axis A-A and having leading edge flaps 13 and trailing edge combined flap/ailerons 12, though separate flaps and ailerons may be provided. The aircraft tail has a rudder 15, horizontal stabilizers 16, elevators 17, and a substantially vertically directed rotor 18. In horizontal flight, pitch and roll of the aircraft are controlled by the elevator and the flap/ailerons respectively, while yaw is controlled by the rudder or by a thrust differential between the main engines 19; in vertical flight pitch, roll and yaw of the aircraft are controlled by the thrust of the tail rotor, a thrust differential between the main engines and by the flap/ailerons respectively. During transition from horizontal to vertical flight or vice versa combinations of the above controls are used. When the pilot moves the control stick 23, Fig. 2, the motion is transmitted via rods or other means and conventional boost, trim and feel mechanisms 27 to form input signals for a central programming unit 22 where the signals are fed to mixing and programming units having variable gain mechanisms controlled by the angle of wing tilt. Each control signal is thus attenuated or amplified according to the angle of wing tilt, and the signals are then combined to form the differential signals required to control flap/ailerons or the main engine thrusts. The differential signals form the output of unit 22, and are mixed in summing units 33 and 39 with signals derived directly from the pilot's control settings and indicative of the required collective settings of the control surfaces, the sum of the differential and collective signals determining the final control surface position. The mixing of the inputs to unit 22 to form the differential outputs is shown in Fig. 3; the longitudinal stick motion 28 represents the pilot's setting of the pitch of the aircraft, and is always connected to the elevators 17, 17<SP>1</SP>. This stick motion 28 is also fed to a variable gain programming unit 49 which controls, via a load limiting device 56, the pitch of the blades of the tail rotor 18. As with all the other variable gain programming units in unit 22; unit 49 receives an input from a shaft 59 dependent on the wing tilt. Lateral stick motion 29 represents pilot's roll settings, and is fed to a variable gain programming unit 51 which has two outputs, one connected via a bridge 55 to a propeller blade summing unit 39 and the other via a bridge 54 to a flap/aileron summing unit 33. Similarly the pilot's rudder, which represents the pilot's yaw settings, is fed via a variable gain programming unit 53 to the ends of bridges 54, 55 to which-unit 51 is not connected. Thus the signals received by summing units 33 and 39 from these bridges are combinations of the pilot's roll and yaw settings, the combinations depending on the wing tilt inputs to the variable gain programming units. Pitch, roll and yaw stability sensing gyroscopes 40 provide a degree of automatic control at the input of unit 22. The operation of the variable gain programming units of unit 22 is shown in Fig. 4; the controlling input to each variable gain programming unit from the wing tilt is in the form of a cam mounted on shaft 59. Since units 51 and 53 are similar, only unit 53 will be described; this unit itself comprises two similar variable gain mechanisms, controlled by cams 63 and 62, so that only the mechanism of cam 63 will be described. The rudder pedal motion 30 is transmitted via pivoted rods to an input lever 52, pivotally connected to an end of rod a, the other end of rod a being pivoted to the fuselage through a stability gyroscope mechanism 46. Lever 52 is pivotally connected at b 2 to one end of a lever b which is pivoted to the fuselage at b 1 . The other end of lever b is pivoted to one end of a lever c at b 3 , lever c being pivoted to a further lever e and a rod d at c 1 . The rod d is pivoted to a cam follower g which is pivoted to the fuselage at g 1 and co-operates with cam 63. The length of lever c is such that movement of the cam 63 may be transmitted via follower g and rod d to place pivot point c 1 directly above pivot point b 1 so that motion of point b 2 on lever b is not transmitted to lever e. Lever e is pivoted to a lever f pivoted at one end f 1 to the fuselage and at the other end to a rod 66. The rod 66 is connected to one end of a bridge 55 which forms the differential output connected to the main propeller pitch summing unit 39. Thus the motion of the rudder pedal is transmitted to the bridge 55, depending on the relative positions of points b 1 and c 1 determined by the cam 63; the rudder pedal motion is similarly transmitted to bridge 54, depending on a cam 62, while the lateral stick motion is also transmitted, through similar mechanisms controlled by cams 61 and 60 to the bridges 54, 55. The elevator motion 28 controls the tail rotor incidence through a similar mechanism controlled by a cam 64, while a cam 65 is the sole controlling means for the horizontal stabilizer incidence. Fig. 2 shows how the outputs from bridges 51 and 53 representing the differential between the main engine thrusts or the flap/ailerons required to give a desired amount of pitch or roll are connected to the control surfaces; a summing unit 33, described in detail in the Specification, receives via a cam a signal directly from the wing indicative of the wing tilt angle and this determines a collective setting of the flap/ ailerons; this same wing tilt signal also sets the leading edge flaps 134, via a mechanism 34. The summing unit 33 sums the collective signal with the differential signal from the bridge 54 of unit 22 to produce a final setting of the flap/ ailerons. A summing unit 39 receives the differential signals from the bridge 55 of unit 22 and combines these with a collective blade pitch signal derived via a unit 38 from the pilot's main engine pitch control 35, the pilot's R.P.M. control 36, and a constant speed unit 37; unit 39 produces a final setting of the main propeller blade pitch; the construction of unit 39 is not described. Actual mechanisms corresponding to Fig. 4 are described (Figs. 6B, 7, 8 and 9, not shown), differing from Fig. 4 only in that the rudder pedal motion 30 is connected only to one lever 52, this applying also to the lateral stick motion. An embodiment having separate flaps and ailerons is described, Fig. 10 (not shown).